Art and Photography

How steady are you?

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  • Sep 26th, 2008 9:13 pm
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Deal Addict
Aug 22, 2007
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How steady are you?

OOC, without IS, what is the longest you can keep your shutter open without blurring your photo, without bracing against anything. I assume you are free-standing (nothing at all to help you but your own torso legs arms and head).

I can do 1/8th at the very best but it rarely happens so, to me, it doesn't count. If I am forced to (due to low light), I prefer to shoot at 1/10 to 1/13 for shots that require a little more light.

Also, if this isn't too personal, please list your age (or a range) so people can see an average of shutter speeds for a certain age group, stuff like that. It's interesting.

PS: If you are going to look through everyone's posts, do not insult others or lay down the fire on someone if they are unsteady or something. People are different and have different levels of muscle control. Take your hatred out elsewhere, mmk?

Me: 1/10, 17.

EDIT: I lied.

Put me at 1/13, 17. :P

EDIT2: [rfdlink=38]Canon[/rfdlink] 17-85 IS at 85.
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Dec 13, 2005
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my personal best without VR was 1/8 but that was only achieved twice with near perfection (i dont have the photos anymore but i remember it was while practicing macro shots on my xbox indoors... so no wind, no vibration from peoples footsteps, cars etc.

on average I believe I can keep a consistent 1/15 with VR turned off and 1/10 with it turned on.

age: 20 :)
Portfolio: AH87 Studios
Nikon D700 | Nikon 80-200mm AF-D f/2.8 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8 | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8


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Sep 3, 2003
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I think it would depend on your lens too... you may have an easier time hand-holding an ultra-wide.
Deal with it.
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Jan 17, 2004
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I also think that you have to specify the effective focal length of your lens before these shutter speeds would mean anything. The oft-quoted rule of thumb is that you can hand-hold with a shutter speed equal to, or faster than, the reciprocal of the effective focal length. This means that in theory one ought to be able to hand-hold an ultra-wide at, say 1/20s, and get acceptable results, but would have no chance doing the same with, say, a 400mm lens.
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Oct 15, 2002
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Markham
LOL...the "oldies" give advice, no age mentioned...

I used to be able hold 1/4 with IS when I was in my mid-20's. (I'm way past that now...)

Now, I need at least 1/focal length!! :cheesygri
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Nov 19, 2005
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KorruptioN wrote: I think it would depend on your lens too... you may have an easier time hand-holding an ultra-wide.
+1 !!!

This totally depends on focal length. PLUS it deals with percentages too. It should be like "I can handhold a 50mm at 1/15 of a second properly 30% of the time". But since I haven't measured how steady I am in depth I would say I can do consistently do 1/40th with a 50mm on a 1.6x crop factor digital body.

A good way to increase your "keeper" rate at slow shutters is to fire bursts of images. That way in a burst of 5 shots at least 1 is hopefully sharp!

:D

My personal experience from using a 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens is that the Image Stabilization is SUPER important and a very valuable tool. But it's not magic though. Even at 1/30th of a second at 200mm I can still sometimes get blurry or unsharp photos of stationary people.
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Nov 10, 2003
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sfu_engineer wrote: This totally depends on focal length. PLUS it deals with percentages too.
I fully agree.
I can shoot at a shutter speed of 1 sec. Handheld. Any focal zoom. But just .0001% of the time.
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Mar 1, 2004
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Pickering
NuggyBuggy wrote: I also think that you have to specify the effective focal length of your lens before these shutter speeds would mean anything. The oft-quoted rule of thumb is that you can hand-hold with a shutter speed equal to, or faster than, the reciprocal of the effective focal length. This means that in theory one ought to be able to hand-hold an ultra-wide at, say 1/20s, and get acceptable results, but would have no chance doing the same with, say, a 400mm lens.
+1

Here are some photos I took last week and of course they are handheld

Canon 24-105 @ 24mm f/5.6, 1/4, with IS on:
[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3085/288 ... e06b_b.jpg[/IMG]

Handheld HDR!!
Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm f/4.0 + f/4.5 + f/4.0, 1/25 + 1/40 + 1/13 lens has no IS:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/288 ... ced5_b.jpg[/IMG]

Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm f/5.6 1/8

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3131/288 ... 64a2_b.jpg[/IMG]
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sfu_engineer wrote: My personal experience from using a 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens is that the Image Stabilization is SUPER important and a very valuable tool. But it's not magic though. Even at 1/30th of a second at 200mm I can still sometimes get blurry or unsharp photos of stationary people.
+1. With IS on at 210mm I've gone as low as 1/40s. I definitely take the sony a700's in-body IS for granted, so I never really noticed how low I can go unstabilized. My non-IS point&shoot drove me crazy in low light with anything below 1/shutterspeed.
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AudiDude wrote: Here are some photos I took last week and of course they are handheld
Nothing special... Anyone can handhold and get the results you got.
Canon 24-105 @ 24mm f/5.6, 1/4, with IS on:
IS gives you at least 3 stops of shutter speed, which would put the shutter at 1/3. You shot at 1/4.
Handheld HDR!!
Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm f/4.0 + f/4.5 + f/4.0, 1/25 + 1/40 + 1/13 lens has no IS:

Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm f/5.6 1/8
at 10mm, anyone should be able to handhold at 1/10 and get sharp images... 1/8 is better then the 1/focal lenght.
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Sep 3, 2005
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bluewaker wrote: Also, if this isn't too personal, list your age too, to see if there is a corrolation between aging and how steady your hands are.
Lay off the caffine.
Consistently I can do 1/20 @ 30mm and 1/40ish @ 50mm. That's with one knee on the ground.
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Outsider wrote: Nothing special... Anyone can handhold and get the results you got.

IS gives you at least 3 stops of shutter speed, which would put the shutter at 1/3. You shot at 1/4.

at 10mm, anyone should be able to handhold at 1/10 and get sharp images... 1/8 is better then the 1/focal lenght.
Was I making some sort of fantastic claims that it would be impossible for someone to get pics at those focal lengths and shutter speeds or something else that I missed ? The point of posting those was to support the facts that everybody stated, you included. Otherwise I could have doctored the numbers if I felt I needed to look cool.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and by seeing those, the OP can actually see how sharp things can be depending on the focal length and shutter speed. As an aside, not just anyone can take the same pictures I did. You can't give someone a DSLR who isn't fairly familiar with using one , set the focal length on 10mm, the shutter speed on 1/10 and hand it to them and get the same results, it takes practice, all the time. The more lenses you have, the more you have to "play" with each one every once in a while to maintain your feel for the lens. The guy who bought my 20D still hasn't got a feel for the camera like I did, and he's had it for 10 months. Practice , practice, practice...
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Mar 25, 2005
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1/10 with a 50mm, crop 1.5 sensor. I get usable results about half the time, under 18.
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Aug 22, 2007
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I'm happy to see people responding to this thread and even contributing photos. Pretty cool!


AudiDude: Those are nice shots and I'm surprised you could get an HDR shot hand held like that. What program did you use...even with CS2's image line-up function, many of my handheld HDR's turn out "out of focus" looking because the images don't line up perfectly. Did you use the AEB function?

CameraBill: Lay off the prejudice on caffeine+17 year olds. Please? Thanks. I get my sleep instead of relying on caffeine. Is there anything wrong with wondering if there is a severe correlation between age and shaky hands? Besides, I think I'm doing alright at 1/10 to 1/13.

Outsider: You've contributed nothing and added more filth to the forum. Bandwidth *****! Tell us what you shoot at. :twisted:
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bluewaker wrote: I'm happy to see people responding to this thread and even contributing photos. Pretty cool!


AudiDude: Those are nice shots and I'm surprised you could get an HDR shot hand held like that. What program did you use...even with CS2's image line-up function, many of my handheld HDR's turn out "out of focus" looking because the images don't line up perfectly. Did you use the AEB function?

Yes, I used AEB. I used CS3 and let it line it up. If you are gettting blur, you might have to eliminate one shot from the HDR merge to clean it up. The faster the camera, the closer the pictures are, so it is slightly easier on a 40D in some cases.
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Oct 26, 2003
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Nepean
I don't think I'm very steady, hence I always have my tripod or my VR on (just not at the same time).
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Feb 9, 2006
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Brampton
My best with IS off is 1/8. But if you watch me it's like watching a sniper in a movie. I'm maybe in the shooting pose for a minute waiting for the body stabilize.

This is with a XSi and kit lens at 55mm.
If I use continuous shooting 1/4 is possible for 1 good shot outta 9.

Are we talking razor sharp shots or just keepers? Because shooting RAW allow me to fix up slight (very slight) blur.
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Jun 2, 2007
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North York, Toronto,…
70-200 F/4L @ 200mm
For normal gesture, one hand on the camera, the other hand on the lens.
200mm requires 1/250.
Can be achieved 1/200 at more steady hold.
and 1/160 with very steady position(standing).

I can do it @1/100 or 1/80 if am shooting like a sniper (i.e. deep and hold breath, two hands hold very steady and count 1, 2, 3, shoot in my head)
But that catch too much attention for snap shots, and it doesn't stop action at that speed.

Sucessful sharp shot means absolutely no image blur, sharpness down to mililmeter or even less. (which also requires accuracy and fast focus)
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Feb 10, 2007
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mahoro wrote: 70-200 F/4L @ 200mm
For normal gesture, one hand on the camera, the other hand on the lens.
200mm requires 1/250.
Can be achieved 1/200 at more steady hold.
and 1/160 with very steady position(standing).

I can do it @1/100 or 1/80 if am shooting like a sniper (i.e. deep and hold breath, two hands hold very steady and count 1, 2, 3, shoot in my head)
But that catch too much attention for snap shots, and it doesn't stop action at that speed.

Sucessful sharp shot means absolutely no image blur, sharpness down to mililmeter or even less. (which also requires accuracy and fast focus)

We meet again haha. I use that 70-200f4 @ 200 quite a bit. if the subject isnt moving i can get pretty sharp even at 1/60th. if the subject is moving i would say 1/100-1/250 to get it sharp and least amt of blur.

my 10-22 i can handhold for quite a long time and still get sharpness although wide open the lense is a tad on the soft side. i think ive done even 1/4 @10mm

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